Chapter 30
Blaze's heart heavily pounds in her chest as soon as the glass elevator doors open out into the arena. The armed men behind her prod Blaze's back with their guns to follow Diva whilst Leon remains tightly gripping onto her. At first, they hear hundreds of spectators yelling and chanting for more fighting. Once Blaze's eyes adjust to the brightness from the flashing lights ahead, the ring appears to be empty with a number of blood stains on the floor.
The crowd falls silent as soon as Ms Y takes the microphone. "You wanted more fight? Well we're about to give you more! Thunder is ready and somebody here is gonna kill tonight!"
The spectators go wild with excitement after patiently waiting for the match to resume.
"I have to kill him…" Axel says to Adam with regret, unaware that Blaze and Leon are entering the other side of the arena.
"But they got Max under their influence, it's not his fault!" Adam answers.
"You think I don't know that?!" Axel argues.
A blood stained Max is first to walk back into the ring, appearing energised and focused once more after the needed break.
Axel is next to step forward, also still injured but willing to push through the pain. As he reaches the edge of the ring, four armed guards block him off from entering.
"Move the fuck out my way!" He demands, trying to barge past term.
"I'm sorry, you must wait here for now otherwise the boy dies".
"This is my fight, move!" He angrily replies.
"Hey! What are you doing?! Let him go!" Blaze kicks and punches as several fighters attempt to pull Leon away from her. Eventually the two of them become separated as soon as they pass the entrance of the loud arena.
"Mommy!" He shouts as he is dragged away from her.
"Leave him alone!" Blaze immediately projects her chi at the gunmen but it is too late and Leon is swiftly carried away by more fighters.
"Bring him to me" Mr Y calmly orders as the boy is taken over towards the VIP area.
"Leon!" Axel frantically shouts from a distance, charging forward as soon as he spots the commotion taking place across the arena.
"Stay where you are or your son here dies!" Mr Y firmly threatens. The boy is then forced to sit between the twins who remain armed with a sword concealed behind him and an uzi gun by his side in Mr Y's jacket.
"I'm sorry, I failed…" Blaze hangs her head low with guilt after being pushed towards Axel's side of the ring.
"You haven't failed, we're still alive…" he answers, staring intensely at her to not give up.
"I told you you'd see your parents again!" Ms Y grins with Leon sitting next to her. The young boy, still feeling feverish, answers back. "You can't kill them!"
"Well it's funny you say that because your two folks right here killed our mommy and daddy. Now you get to watch them die right here one by one" Mr Y quietly says to him.
"Come on, who do you think should take on Thunder first?" Ms Y smirks.
"I think we should stir things up for the crowd" Mr Y responds whilst nodding towards the guards surrounding the ring. They immediately push Blaze forward to fight.
"No! You son of a bitch I told you I'll finish the fight!" Axel shouts up at them.
"And I told you, one more step forward and your boy here dies" Mr Y replies, holding up his gun behind Leon's back for everyone to see.
"Make sure you attack her to the head" Diva whispers in Max's ear before she exits the ring to let him resume the fight.
"Remember the rules! No use of powers allowed, is that clear?!" Ms Y shouts down at Blaze who quietly nods back, preparing herself for the fight ahead.
As soon as the bell rings, Blaze switches on her focus by tactically favouring speed over strength against Max. Watching the two of them fight is almost like a game of cat and mouse and her strategy appears to be effective against the wrestler who has already grown tired from the first fight against Axel. Blaze paces across the ring with agility as Max struggles to keep up with her, growing tireder with every second that passes by. As he slides forward, she jumps high up in the air, landing her boot down in the middle of Max's chest before cartwheeling away.
The impact is painful but does little to stop the wrestler rising back up to his feet. He is now frustrated more than ever at the fact that he is too slow to keep up with his opponent. In the meantime, whilst Mr and Ms Y are distracted watching the fight, Shiva discreetly glances over his shoulder from where he is sitting two rows in front of Leon. The distressed child instantly recognises his Sensei's face under his hood whilst he quietly stares back at him, now with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
Meanwhile down in the ring, Blaze takes every opportunity possible to catch Max off guard whilst running circles around him. She has also been the one to strike all of the hits so far in the fight. The others watch Max's every move with caution as they prepare themselves, keeping one eye on any enemies standing close by and around the arena.
As soon as the fight appears to be in Blaze's favour, Mr Y loses patience then hits a button on tablet that starts to blast music through the speakers of the arena.
This catches everyone by surprise, including Blaze inside the ring when the crowd suddenly falls silent to listen. She pauses for a moment in the centre, having a flashback, remembering the same music that played in the hospital all those years ago when she woke up from her coma.
"We have to stop that music!" Adam orders the others who are by his side as the fight in the middle continues.
One distraction however, is all it takes when Blaze misjudges the timing of her somersault attack forward using her signature Hishoushouzan strike. She ends up crashing into Max's fist whilst he executes a spinning knuckle bomb. Blaze immediately tumbles repeatedly across the ring until eventually stalling, lying flat on her stomach as she tries to recover for a moment from the heavy impact to her ribs.
In the split second that follows, a flame appears from Axel's fists whilst he glares at Shiva in the distance. Shiva immediately removes his hood then begins his attack, splitting his energy into two entities that catch the twins off guard. Each clone simultaneously palm strikes them to the chest. Once they are down, Shiva jumps forward to grab Leon. He then lifts the boy up off the ground, and performs a flaming circular kick in order to block Ms Y who has reached for her sword. His foot ends up catching her around the face which results in her falling to the ground and hitting her head. He then turns to run for help whilst carrying the boy, noticing how hot Leon's temperature is feeling.
"Give him to me!" Mr Y demands from the floor whilst grabbing onto his uzi gun. He aims it straight towards Shiva's head.
"I said, give him to me!" He insists before Shiva turns back around to face him.
"You'll have to kill me first…."
The sound in the arena suddenly turns into an echoed vacuum as a large blade of fire energy cuts through the air, setting the speakers around them alight. Shiva and the others instantly look towards Axel in amazement as he continues his special attack, this time projecting several large fire rockets of energy that catapult around the arena from his body. One of them smacks Mr Y's gun straight out of his hand whilst another explodes on two of the gunmen who have started to attack his friends amongst the chaotic crowd.
Shiva immediately jumps to one side, holding onto Leon as the two of them take cover under the seats from several more fire bolts flying above them.
The violence around them continues to escalate further. Estel, Adam and Floyd each have their work cut out fighting off the remaining guards, gumen and spectators who are now out of control trying to kill everyone and anything still alive around them. The team utilizes Cherry who is the fastest fighter amongst them. She paces around the arena and uses her guitar to blast sparks of energy towards any remaining speakers hanging down from the ceiling in order to stop the music.
Meanwhile inside the ring, the fighting is nowhere near finished as Max aggressively charges towards Blaze who is still lying on the ground. She dashes several orbs of energy towards the large wrestler in order to slow him down. He does his best to block out and ignore the pain from her chi, refusing to stop his attack.
"Max it's me…. I'm alive! We were friends once, don't do this…" Blaze tiredly says as he lifts her off the ground, placing his palms around her skull.
"Do it! Crush her skull now!" Diva demands. Suddenly a large fire bolt hits Max in the back, taking him by surprise.
"Hey! This is our fight remember? Let her go!" Max slowly turns around to face Axel, still painfully pressing his palms into the sides of Blaze's head.
Once Mr Y rises to his feet, he reaches for the microphone in one hand whilst holding his gun in the other. "Do it Thunder! Kill her now and you become the greatest fighter Wood Oak has ever seen!"
Suddenly all of the music in the arena stops and Cherry catches her breath back after demolishing the very last speaker hanging from above.
"I said kill her!" Mr Y shouts, glaring down at Max with evil on his face.
"No!" Leon tries to move out from under the seats but Shiva manages to hold him back before their enemies are able to spot them.
"Max, don't listen to him, we're your family, remember?" Adam calmly says as he and Axel anxiously step forward towards the wrestler who is ready to kill Blaze at any moment.
"They're your enemies, not us! Their father killed Eliza, they took your business and everything you ever had but we're still here for you." Axel says to him. "You were one of the first people in Leon's life, even before me! If it wasn't for you, he wouldn't have made it out of the city alive as a baby and I wouldn't have a son today. Don't do this to him, if you kill Blaze and take away his mother, think of what that would do to him? Then there's no going back." Axel tries to reason with him.
"Do it!" Diva shouts. The siren is unexpectedly silenced when Estel kicks her around the face.
"Don't listen to him, you work for me!" Mr Y glares impatiently at Max who is still holding onto Blaze around her skull, unsure of himself after the effect of the music begins to wear off.
There is a long, silent, unpredictable pause in the arena. Seconds feel like minutes and the tension around them cuts like a knife until the wrestler finally decides to loosen his grip. Both he and Blaze instantly end up falling to their knees in pain to catch their breath in front of one another.
Max holds onto the side of his head in agony with his eyes closed.
"Are you ok?" Blaze asks him with concern.
"That music!... I couldn't control myself, I swear I didn't want to hurt you!" Max replies to her.
"You will obey me!" Ms Y shouts out, rising up to her feet. "Brother, activate the device!"
Two large unbroken speakers that were not previously being used next to the twins immediately start to pound and ring as soon as Mr Y presses a button on his tablet. It makes a deafening noise that causes everybody else inside the arena to cover their ears in pain.
"Sister, we have to leave!" He orders, standing next to the window reaching out his hand as whilst a helicopter hovers, waiting for them outside.
"No!" Estel shouts, desperate to arrest them. Through the pain in her ears, she bravely runs over towards the two speakers before kicking them straight into the centre so that they break.
The twins quickly flee out of the glass window when they both grab onto a rope to climb into the helicopter.
"No! We have to go after them!" Estel insists.
"Wait! Take cover now!" Adam shouts as they see Mr Y holding a rocket launcher inside the helicopter that aims right towards them in the building. Seconds later, the rocket crashes through the glass windows of the tower, causing the arena to violently explode into flames.
The blades of the helicopter outside are the last things that the crowd hear in another moment of silence before a further three rockets launch then explode through the tower with the aim of decimating anybody who is left inside.